Intermittent rainfall has continued in coastal Costa Rica following last week's floods as the country counts the cost to export crops of the unseasonable cold front and low-pressure area that caused the weather.
Banana production is now widely forecast to have lost some 2 million 40lb boxes: more than two per cent of Costa Rica's export total for the fruit. And the country's second most important export fruit, pineapple, has also been hit according to Costa Rican press reports, although damage is not as extensive.
Meanwhile, EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson, on tour in the Caribbean last week, engaged in talks at the meeting of Caricom trade ministers in Guyana over the EU banana import regime reform. He told ministers the EU recognised its special historical responsibility and is committed to giving the region preferential access to the EU market.
The 15 Caricom ministers were in Guyana for the final stages of negotiation to establish a single regional trade bloc, which will be inaugurated in the South American country on February 19. So far only Barbados, Trinidad and Jamaica meet the economic criteria to join. Other eastern Caribbean states will join by the end of 2005 with Haiti and Suriname aiming to enter by 2008.
